The Legend of Claude Speed
by Kenny Grey
Summary: This story follows the life of Claude Speed from his childhood to the infamous day he was betrayed by Catalina and his quest for  revenge to the aftermath of the events Grand Theft Auto III.
1. Childhood and Life in San Fierro

The Origins & Life of Claude Speed

It was late autumn 1965 in the tropical Florida city Vice City. It was nearing hurricane season and the rain was pouring as the wind blew palm trees and street poles to the ground and the thunder cracked. Despite the destructive and devastating weather, a green Perennial sped towards Escobar International Airport. They were being followed by a black Sentinel which pursued them relentlessly. Finally the car reached its destination. A man and a woman stepped out of the car and grabbed an infant car seat which was carrying a newborn baby wrapped in a blanket. As they got out of the car and rushed inside the airport, 4 men dressed in black suits wearing dark sunglasses holding Ithaca 37 pump action shotguns stepped out the Sentinel and continued the chase on foot.

The scared couple finally made to the front desk. Panting heavily, the husband said "We need 3 tickets to San Fierro, please".

"Names please" asked the attendant.

"Charles and Sylvia Speed" said Charles.

"We're sorry Mr. & Mrs. Speed, we only have 1 ticket available for San Fierro" the attendant told them.

As the mobsters closed in on the family, Sylvia handed the attendant the baby.

"Here, just make sure my baby is safe" Sylvia said as she handed the woman the baby.

Just then a loud shotgun blast rang out as the mafia men finally caught up with the family, causing people to panic and run around in a hysterical frenzy. In the midst of the chaos, the baby seat was dropped. The baby awoke, and as he opened his eyes, he saw one of the mobsters club his father on the back of the head with the shotgun. The baby stared as he watched the 4 men beat his parents with the shotgun for 5 minutes, breaking their bones and causing them to bleed.

He then watched as the men began raping his mother, while she screamed hysterically. After leaving the couple battered, broken, and lying in a pool of blood, the men allowed them to get up only to blast them in their kneecaps. They then took turns blasting their arms, legs, and torsos, severing a few limbs. Finally they ended the horrific and brutal assault by shooting the couple in the head. One of them then shouted "Salvatore Leone doesn't like it to be kept waiting!" The mobsters then fled to their Sentinel and drove off into the stormy night.

Following the bloody murder, the desk attendant called the cops before she heard crying. When she went over to comfort the crying baby, she saw a card in the baby seat. It read "Claude Speed, born July 7, 1965"; on the back was a note saying: "please get Claude out of Vice City; he won't be safe here as the mafia will kill him."

The attendant then remembered the ticket that had been bought by the Speeds prior to the murder. She picked up Claude and put him on a plane to San Fierro. As he fell asleep and the murder of his parents played over and over again in his head; even though he was barely 2 months old he made a vow to find and kill Salvatore Leone.

Following the murder of his parents, Claude lived in a majority of his life in a San Fierro orphanage. At the orphanage, Claude was bullied by the other orphans because of his calm and quiet demeanor. The bullying continued until age 8 when Claude slashed one of the kids throat with a jagged shard of glass. Ever since then none of the kids ever fucked with Claude again. In high school, Claude's silence disturbed some of the other students and teachers. After beating a jock into a coma for stealing his money, Claude was suspended and soon after dropped out of high school. In 1984, Claude co starred in a few pornographic films along with debuting actress Candy Suxxx.

After a 4 year stint in Vice City, Claude returned to San Fierro in 1988, where he became the top dog in an illegal racing ring, beating every top contender. He soon won a garage in Doherty and for the next 4 years was unbeatable. His reign as champion came to an end in 1992. In the winter of 1992, Claude met Catalina, who at the time was in a relationship with Carl 'CJ' Johnson. After losing to CJ and giving him the keys to his garage in Doherty, Claude joined the Columbian Cartel alongside Catalina before leaving for Liberty City. On their way to Liberty City, they made a few stops robbing banks and committing numerous murders. In 2000, after losing the trail of the cops, they finally reached their destination, Liberty City.


	2. Betrayal

Betrayal, Escape, and Road to Revenge

In the fall of 2000, Claude and Catalina, along with high ranking Cartel member Miguel and Hernandez were busy orchestrating a robbery of the Liberty City Bank. Miguel would be the getaway driver, Claude would watch over the customers and bank teller while Catalina and Hernandez would take the money from the safe. After discussing the plan, Claude noticed Catalina conversing with Miguel. Claude however thought nothing of it and got ready for the robbery.

The night before the robbery, Catalina convinced Claude to "fuck her one more time". The following morning Claude showered before putting on his black shirt, black leather jacket, green cargo pants and blue tennis shoes. He then grabbed his shotgun from the table and met up with Catalina, who was dressed in an almost identical outfit. After going over the plan one more time, the group headed to Liberty Bank.

The robbery went just as planned. Catalina and Hernandez managed break open the vault while Claude kept the customers under control. The bank teller however managed to press a button under her desk which alerted police.

"Claude, you fuckin idiot; I give you an easy job and you fuck that up! You stupid piece of shit!" Catalina yelled.

The trio then proceeded to kill the screaming customers before they ran out the back door into the alley to avoid the cops. As they ran out the door, Claude took the opportunity to blast the security camera. In the distance he heard a gunshot. He assumed it was just Catalina firing at the cops. When he caught up with Catalina and Hernandez, he saw Hernandez lying on the ground in a pool of blood with a fresh bullet wound in his head. He then looked up to see Catalina aiming a pair of dual pistols at him.

"Sorry Baby, I'm an ambitious girl and you're small time" Catalina explained to Claude before shooting him in the throat and getting away with the money with Miguel.

As Claude lied bleeding on the street, he heard the police sirens in the distance before he passed out.

Claude was soon after arrested and after 3 months in jail was tried and convicted of Armed Robbery and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Maybe it was luck, maybe it was fate, maybe it was the grace of God but on its route from Staunton to the Liberty Penitentiary in Portland, the police convoy was ambushed after a bomb detonated. The impact of the explosion forced the prison van to flip onto its side. Taking advantage of the confusion, Claude punched one of the officers in the face before stealing the keys to the handcuffs and unlocking the shackles of him and another inmate. The other inmate was a bald black man with bandaged hands.

"My name's 8-Ball, come on let's get outta here before the cops arrive. I know a place on the edge of the Red Light District where we can lay low, but my hands are all messed up so you better drive, brother" 8-Ball introduced himself as the two ducked gunfire from Cartel members who had arranged the ambush. Claude and 8-Ball then found one car that somehow was left unscathed during the ambush.

8-Ball introduced Claude to Luigi of the Leone Family. After a few missions for Luigi, he was introduced to Joey Leone. After doing a couple jobs for Toni Cipriani, leading Leone family capo, he was introduced to Don Salvatore Leone.

Claude immediately felt an intense amount of anger and rage after being introduced to Salvatore. Suddenly he remembered the vow he had made years ago. If the other Leones weren't standing in the room, he would've killed Salvatore right there on the spot. Claude however decided since Salvatore didn't remember him he should have some fun with him and take a little bit of his money until he got close enough to Salvatore where he could kill him.

After helping the Leones deal a huge blow to the Triads, Salvatore expressed gratitude.

"I like you kid, I see nothing but good things for you," Salvatore said "just think about it you could be a made man; the world at your fingertips, endless amounts of wealth, no one could fuck with you, your name striking fear into the heart of many. Speaking of which, what is your name?"

Claude however just grabbed a notepad and wrote his name down.

"Claude Speed, huh?" Salvatore said as he looked at the name.

Claude smiled as he saw for a brief second a small look of fear and paranoia on Salvatore's face.

"Looks like my name's already striking fear into the heart of many" Claude thought to himself. He knew Salvatore's paranoia would cause him to watch Claude's every move and eventually betray him.

He just waited however and decided that when Salvatore did betray him, he would use that as an excuse to kill him. After Salvatore tried to lure him into a death trap, Claude was saved Maria, who had previously flirted with him, although he paid her no attention. Maria introduced him to Asuka Kasen of the Yakuza. The first job Asuka gave to Claude was to prove his ties with the Leones were truly broken by killing Salvatore Leone. Claude had no problem with doing that, he'd be getting his revenge on Leone and would be _paid_ to do it. Claude quickly headed over to Luigi's Sex Club in the Red Light District. He waited on the rooftop across from the club perched with a sniper rifle and waited for Salvatore to leave. As Salvatore exited, Claude pulled the trigger, blowing Salvatore's brains out. Claude hid and waited as Luigi called the police and the Leones looked around for the killer. After the situation died down, Claude left Portland over to Staunton Island.

With his revenge on Salvatore settled, Claude focused on another vendetta: finding and killing Catalina. He knew that the Yakuza and the Cartel were far from friends, meaning he could probably get help from Asuka in finding Catalina.


	3. Sweet Revenge

Revenge, Aftermath, and Working for Toni

Asuka continued to give Claude work and introduced him to her brother Kenji Kasen, leader of the Yakuza who hired him to do a couple jobs. During this time Claude was introduced to Ray Machowski who introduced him to Donald Love. After helping Machowski by destroying some rather incriminating evidence, he was introduced to cannibalistic billionaire Donald Love. After assisting Machowski in his escape to Vice City, Donald hired him to kill Kenji Kasen in an attempt to cause a gang war between The Yakuza and The Columbian Cartel. Following this, Claude was hired to retrieve some packages for Love. In his pursuit of the packages, Claude was led to a construction site in Fort Staunton. He went up the elevator of a tall platform, where he saw Catalina and Miguel, who had stolen the package. After a brief, but tense confrontation, Catalina pulled out a concealed gun and betrayed and shot Miguel before leaping off the platform and escaping. Following this, Asuka arrived and to began torture Miguel, telling Claude to come back later for more work. After doing a few more jobs for Donald Love, Claude went back to Asuka. After weakening the Cartel's SPANK business, Asuka hired Claude to destroy a Dodo carrying a large amount of SPANK. When he returned to the construction site. Asuka was dead, shot in the back of the head twice, and Miguel had been impaled on a pole. Maria was nowhere to be seen. On the pole, on which Miguel was impaled Claude found a note reading "I've got your precious Maria. If you don't want her face to look like she fell out with the butcher, bring $500,000 to the Villa at Cedar Grove."

"Maria you idiot, I don't know which one of you I want to kill more, the greedy, money hungry whore or the backstabbing, equally greedy money hungry psycho bitch" Claude thought to himself.

He then hopped into the gold Patriot he got from Ray as a gift and headed to Cedar Grove to rescue Maria. When he arrived at the Cartel Mansion, he was confronted by two Cartel members. After being stripped of his weapons, he was taken to Catalina. Maria was being held by two other Cartel members. Upon seeing him, Catalina smiled a taunting smile at him.

"The real question is did you come to rescue Maria or did you come to get me? Well I got news for you, shooting you was a pleasure but dating you was just business." she told him mockingly.

"Just business, just business?" Claude thought "nine fuckin years together and on day out the blue, it became just business and you decided to fuckin stab me in the back!"

Claude was now regretting not having paid attention to that CJ guy in San Andreas. Maybe if he had, he could have seen this coming.

"throw over the cash!" Catalina told him. Claude then pulled out the briefcase and handed it over, having no other choice.

Catalina checked the briefcase to make sure it wasn't a trick before laughing.

"You have been a busy boy, but you still haven't learned I am not to be trusted!" Catalina laughed before telling her men "Kill the idiot!"

Claude, unarmed and at the mercy of the Cartel members watched as Catalina grabbed Catalina and escaped in a helicopter. With little time to waste, Claude turned around and using all his strength punched a cartel member in his jaw, knocking him out cold. He then picked up his gun and escaped the Cartel mansion. He hopped into his Patriot and followed Catalina's chopper to Cochrane Dam.

When he reached the Dam, there were four cartel members welding M-16s guarding the entrance. Claude hid his patriot in the bushes before stealing an Infernus.

"OK Claude, don't fuck this up" he thought to himself before charging at the gate.

The cartel members opened fire. Bullets ripped through the Infernus as Claude got closer.

"And… Now!" Claude thought to himself as he bailed out of the Infernus, just in the nick of time.

The smoking and burning Infernus stopped right at the gate before exploding a split second later, destroying the two Cartel Cruisers and killing the Cartel members before they had a chance to react. Claude ran over and picked up their weapons and ammunition. Seeing some body armor on the ground he picked it up before heading inside.

Taking cover behind some crates, Claude took careful aim and using his pistol killed half of the Cartel's ground forces. He then used his M-16 to take out the rest of them. Before continuing he picked up a discarded sniper rifle. Seeing it only had 5 bullets, he used it to carefully take out 5 cartel snipers.

Catalina's face twisted in rage. She had failed to kill him _again!_

"Damn you! You are all fucking worthless, all of you!" she swore to her men. She ordered two of her men to guard Maria, and then climbed back into the chopper.

"Get this thing airborne!" she demanded, and then rummaged around, as if looking for something.

"What are you doing?" the pilot asked as the chopper lifted into the air.

"Does this useless heap of junk have _any_ weapons?" she asked.

"There's a rocket launcher behind your seat, I think."

Catalina reached behind her seat and pulled out the long, cylindrical, green weapon. She was going to finish Claude off, once and for all.

Just as Claude reached the top of the steps, he saw the chopper lift off into the air. He fired at it with the MAC, but the bullets just bounced off harmlessly. The chopper sped off, and Claude saw two more of Catalina's men, standing in front of Maria. Claude fired at them, killing them both. He ran over to Maria.

"Oh, Fido!" she said happily, using her nickname for Claude, "I knew you would come and rescue me!"

The sound of a rocket being fired caught Claude's attention. He spun just in time to see a rocket heading right for him. He grabbed Maria and ran, leaping off the structure just as the rocket hit the floor. There was a massive explosion that propelled Claude and Maria forwards. They landed, hard, on a supply crate.

Catalina cursed in anger, what would it take to kill this man.

"Why the fuck won't you die!" she yelled in anger.

Claude meanwhile was shaking the cobwebs out of his head. Next to one of the dead cartel member's was an M-16. He picked it up and waited for Catalina to circle back around. Claude took careful aim and fired at the chopper. Bullet after bullet pinged off the armored whirly, until at last something good happened. Catalina had been hanging out the open side door of the chopper, aiming the rocket launcher. With a sickening half-crunch, half-splatter, the M4 bullet tore through Catalina's right arm. And severed it. Along with Catalina's arm was the rocket launcher, Claude picked it up and in a few seconds, Catalina was no more.

As he reached the bottom of the dam and grabbed the case out of the water, he looked at the spot where Catalina's chopper had sank.

_You shouldn't have fucked me over babe,_ he thought.

He and Maria then walked away.

"I broke a nail, and my hair is ruined. I mean can you believe it" Maria whined. "This is gonna cost me 50 dol-"

Midway through Maria's sentence, the lone surviving cartel member got up and aimed his AK-47 at them. Claude however managed to sense it, turned around and shot the cartel member dead.


	4. Aftermath and Working for Toni

Aftermath and working for Toni

After killing Catalina, Claude left the organized crime and went back to working a hit man and small time criminal. One day, he took Maria out shopping in Torrington. As they walked around the city, 2 black sentinels cut them off. Claude, remembering the death of his parents became very nervous. 8 Leone Mafioso armed with shotguns and AK-47s stepped out of the car and surrounded.

"Get in the car, Don Toni Cipriani wants to have a word with you" one of the Mafioso ordered them.

Claude and Maria were taken Ma's restaurant in Saint Mark's. They were seated in front of Toni, who was smoking a cigar.

"Calm down kid, I don't want to kill you, I want to join the Cipriani Family" Toni told him.

Claude was immediately distrustful and wondered why Toni would want him to rejoin the Mafia; after all he was the man who killed Salvatore Leone.

"Listen kid, let me assure you that you have me word" Toni reassured him. "You killed Salvatore Leone, you crushed the Forellis, you single handedly defeated nearly the entire Columbian Cartel, and even though practically every gang in Liberty City hates you, you managed to survive"

Claude considered before asking "What's in it for me?" in a calm voice with a Brooklyn accent.

Everyone, including Maria was shocked to hear Claude's voice for the first time. Toni however just grinned before extending his hand.

"Whatever you want kid, this is our city" Toni replied "What do you say kid?"

Claude thought for a moment before accepting Toni's offer and shaking his hand.

"I say you, Toni Cipriani have got yourself a deal"

In January of 2001, Claude along with Toni Cipriani sold their stories to Rockstar North. In the fall of that year, Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto III, based on the series of events.

By summer of 2002, Claude was leading capo of the Cipriani Family. He and Toni, as well as Maria who occasionally got her hands dirty, controlled all of Liberty City. In 2004, when Homer Sexual was elected as Mayor of Liberty City, Toni attempted to blackmail the mayor into falling under their control. Their plan was foiled when the newly revived Sindacco family beat them to it.

With their plans being constantly being thwarted and increased police attention, Claude, Maria, Toni and his mother Ma, Luigi Goterelli, and Mickey Hamfists moved to Algonquin, Upstate Liberty in 2005. Shortly afterwards, Portland, Staunton, and Shoreside Vale broke away from Liberty and declared itself Anywhere City.

Desperately needing to avoid any potential attention, Claude changed his clothing style. He cut his slicked hair short, wore a white T shirt and blue jeans with a pair of Timberlands.

Soon afterwards the rest of the Cipriani family relocated to Liberty City. In 2006, with multiple mafias budding in Liberty City, the Cipriani family created the Commission, which would consist of the 5 most powerful mafia families in Liberty City. The original incarnation of The Commission fell apart in 2007 due to tensions rising.

In early 2008, the decision was made and the Cipriani Family relocated to San Andreas. During this time Maria and Claude became married and had kids. The Cipriani mafia quickly dominated and gained control of Las Venturas and San Fierro as well as establishing a truce with Los Santos' most powerful gang, the Grove Street Family.

In late 2009, with vast amounts of wealth, power, and influence Claude decided to retire from the life of crime. However he was still a member of the Ciprianis, and ran their casinos in Las Venturas. Renaming it the Speed Casino, Claude lived a luxurious life. He later went on to write 3 bestselling books.

Claude Speed died in 2020 after being killed by a car bomb planted by the San Fierro Yakuzas who were attempting to weaken the Ciprianis' influence on the city.

His tombstone read _'Claude Speed, loved husband, father, and friend. A powerful man of few words 1965-2020'_


End file.
